Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York
Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, also named Richard Plantagenet, was a leading English magnate and claimant to the throne during the Wars of the Roses. He was a member of the ruling House of Plantagenet by virtue of being a direct male-line descendant of Edmund of Langley, King Edward III's fourth surviving son. However, it was through his mother, Anne Mortimer, a descendant of Edward III's second surviving son, Lionel of Antwerp, that Richard inherited his strongest claim to the throne, as the opposing House of Lancaster was descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the third surviving son of Edward III. He also inherited vast estates and served in various offices of state in Ireland, France and England, a country he ultimately governed as Lord Protector due to the mental instability of King Henry VI.
Richard's conflicts with Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou, and other members of Henry's court, such as Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, and his competing claim to the throne, were leading factors in the political upheaval of mid-fifteenth-century England, and a major cause of the Wars of the Roses. Richard eventually attempted to take the throne, but was dissuaded, although it was agreed that he would become king on Henry's death. However, within weeks of securing this agreement, he was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, alongside his son, Edmund. Two of his surviving sons later ascended the throne: Edward IV and Richard III.
Descent
Richard of York was born on 22 September 1411, the son of Richard, Earl of Cambridge, and his wife Anne Mortimer. Both his parents were descended from King Edward III of England: his father was son of Edmund, 1st Duke of York, fourth surviving son of Edward III, whereas his mother Anne Mortimer was a great-granddaughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, Edward's second son. After the death in 1425 of Anne's childless brother Edmund, Earl of March, this ancestry supplied her son Richard, of the House of York, with a claim to the English throne that was arguably superior to that of the reigning House of Lancaster, descended from John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III.Richard had an only sister, Isabel. Richard's mother, Anne Mortimer, died during or shortly after his birth, and his father the Earl of Cambridge was beheaded in 1415 for his part in the Southampton Plot against the Lancastrian King Henry V. Within a few months of his father's death, Richard's childless uncle, Edward, 2nd Duke of York, was slain at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and so Richard inherited Edward's title and lands, becoming 3rd duke of York. The lesser title but greater estates of the Mortimer family, along with their claim to the throne, also descended to him on the death of his maternal uncle Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, in 1425.
Richard of York already held a strong claim to the English throne, being the heir general of Edward III while also related to the same king in a direct male line of descent. Once he inherited the vast Mortimer estates, he also became the wealthiest and most powerful noble in England, second only to the king himself. An account shows that York's net income from Welsh and marcher lands alone was £3,430 in the year 1443–44.
Childhood and upbringing
Upon the death of the Earl of Cambridge, Richard became a ward of the crown. As he was an orphan, his property was managed by royal officials. Despite his father's plot against the king, along with his provocative ancestry—one which had been used in the past as a rallying point by enemies of the House of Lancaster—Richard was allowed to inherit his family estates without any legal constraints. His considerable lands as duke of York meant that his wardship was a valuable gift of the crown, and in December 1423 this was sold to Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland.Little is recorded of Richard's early life. As a royal ward, in 1416 he was placed under the guardianship of the Lancastrian retainer Robert Waterton, under whose tutelage he remained until 1423, in a low public profile. Then, as ward of the Earl of Westmorland, York was brought up in the Neville family hearth until his majority. The earl had fathered an enormous family, having had twenty-two children, and had many daughters needing husbands; as was his right, he betrothed the thirteen-year-old Richard to his nine-year-old daughter Cecily Neville in 1424. The marriage, which took place by October 1429, meant that Richard was now related to much of the English upper aristocracy, many of whose members had themselves married into the Neville family. In October 1425, when Ralph Neville died, he bequeathed the wardship of York to his widow, Joan Beaufort. By now the wardship was even more valuable, as Richard had inherited the vast Mortimer estates on the death of the Earl of March.
Over the next few years, York was drawn more closely into the circle around the young king. On 19 May 1426 he was knighted at Leicester by John, Duke of Bedford, the younger brother of King Henry V. He was present at the coronation of King Henry VI on 6 November 1429 in Westminster Abbey, and on 20 January 1430 he acted as Constable of England for a duel in the presence of the king at Smithfield. He then followed Henry to France, being present at his coronation as king of France in Notre-Dame in 1431. Finally, on 12 May 1432, he came into his inheritance and was granted full control of his estates. On 22 April 1433, York was admitted to the knightly Order of the Garter.
War in France
As York reached majority, events were unfolding in France which would tie him to the events of the ongoing Hundred Years' War. In the spring of 1434, York attended a great council meeting at Westminster which attempted to conciliate the king's uncles, the dukes of Bedford and Gloucester, over disagreements regarding the conduct of the war in France. Henry V's conquests in France could not be sustained forever, as England either needed to conquer more territory to ensure permanent French subordination, or to concede territory to gain a negotiated settlement. During Henry VI's minority, his Council took advantage of French weakness and the alliance with Burgundy to increase England's possessions, but following the Treaty of Arras of 1435, Burgundy ceased to recognise the English king's claim to the French throne.In May 1436, a few months after Bedford's death, York was appointed to succeed him as commander of the English forces in France. York's appointment was one of a number of stop-gap measures after the death of Bedford to try to retain French possessions until the young King Henry VI could assume personal rule. His actual departure was delayed due to disagreements pertaining to the terms of his indentures. Rather than receiving the same powers Bedford had enjoyed as "regent", York was forced to settle for a lesser role as "lieutenant-general and governor", by which he was not allowed to appoint major financial and military officials.
York landed in France on 7 June 1436, disembarking at Honfleur. This was the duke's first military command. The fall of Paris led to his army being redirected to Rouen. Working with Bedford's captains, York had some success, recovering many lost areas in Normandy while establishing good order and justice in the duchy. The campaigns were mainly conducted by Lord Talbot, one of the leading English captains of the day, but York also played a part in stopping and reversing French advances, recapturing Fécamp and a number of towns in the Pays de Caux.
However, he was dissatisfied with the terms under which he was appointed, as he had to find much of the money to pay his troops and other expenses from his own estates. York was keen to leave France as soon as his original twelve-month term of office expired, but he was instructed to remain until the arrival of his successor, the Earl of Warwick, and he did not return to England until November 1437. In spite of York's position as one of the leading nobles of the realm, he was not included in Henry VI's Council on his return.
France again
turned to York again after peace negotiations failed. York was reappointed Lieutenant of France on 2 July 1440, this time with the same powers that the late Bedford had earlier been granted. As in 1437, York was able to count on the loyalty of Bedford's supporters, including Sir John Fastolf, Sir William Oldhall and Sir William ap Thomas. He was promised an annual income of £20,000 to support his position. Duchess Cecily accompanied him to Normandy, and his children Edward, Edmund and Elizabeth were all born in Rouen.York reached France in 1441 and quickly moved up the Seine towards Pontoise, which was besieged by the French. Though York failed to bring the French to battle, he and Lord Talbot—in what would be the highlight of York's military career—led a brilliant campaign involving several river crossings around the Seine and Oise, chasing them almost up to the walls of Paris. In the end, all of York's efforts were in vain, for the French took Pontoise by assault in September 1441. This was to be York's only military action during his second lieutenancy.
In 1442, York continued to hold the line in Normandy. He signed a treaty with Isabel, duchess of Burgundy, at Dijon on 23 April 1443, which created an indefinite truce between England and Burgundy. Funding the war effort was becoming an increasing issue: though he was paid his annuity of £20,000 in 1441–1442, York did not receive anything more from England until February 1444.
However, in 1443 Henry VI put the newly created Duke of Somerset, John Beaufort, in charge of an army of 8,000 men, initially intended for the relief of Gascony. This denied York much-needed men and resources at a time when he was struggling to hold the borders of Normandy. Not only that, but the terms of Somerset's appointment could have caused York to feel that his own role as effective regent over the whole of Lancastrian France was reduced to that of governor of Normandy. The English establishment in Normandy expressed strong opposition to the measure, but the delegation York sent to remonstrate against the decision was unsuccessful. Somerset's campaign itself also added to the insult: his conduct brought England to odds with the dukes of Brittany and Alençon, disrupting York's attempts to involve the English in an alliance of French nobles. Somerset's army achieved nothing and eventually returned to Normandy, where Somerset died in 1444. This may have been the start of the hatred that York harboured for the Beaufort family, a resentment that would later turn into civil war.
English policy now turned back to a negotiated peace with France, so the remainder of York's time in France was spent in routine administration and domestic matters. York met Margaret of Anjou, the intended bride for Henry VI, on 18 March 1445 at Pontoise.